Yah Mo B There*

Happy New Year to all our Dear Readers Just as in 2025 the new year started with very wintry weather that led to the closure of Ruskin Sports Village for our opening session The Council took the correct decision to close access to the facility, though the 3G pitch was probably playable the car park and surrounding roads were deemed too dangerous

Focus switched to the midweek session due to take place on Wednesday night at Sutton SoccerDome Improving conditions allowed two games to commence with the usual suspects soft shoe shuffling around indoors whilst their rough tough fellow members donned multi layers to enjoy an hour on the MUGA outdoor pitch

The Innards were;

Pinks, Andy Man, Tracey, Les Meldrew, Honeyman and Lord Rainford.

Greens, Phil the Power, Deggs , Joe the Ghost, GRAV and Citeh Geoff.

Pink started on the front foot and took a deserved 2 -0 in the early exchanges The year's opening goal scored by Steve Honeyman after some good interplay, the second a classic Sussex sweep (modestly described by You know who) For those scratching heads at this point, you should know the Sussex Sweep is the unconventional out step shot favoured by Lord Rainford of Brighton

GRAV got one back for Green 2-1 half time. Les restored Pink 2 goal advantage with a fine finish after another series of fine passing A good finish from Deggs made it 3-2 and the contest was now well and truly on Nip and tuck for last 10 minutes before Pink finally put game out of reach, with possibly Tracey (memory fail in week one is a worrying sign)

Lord Rainford's verdict was that it was a good game but quite a bit of rustiness after 3 weeks off Overall a decent performance with some good play and defensive effort

Pink 4 - 2 winners Sadly in the rush to get the game on no Box Brownie snaps were taken to record the participants involvement There was a vicious rumour that the game ended in a feisty tussle but again the voracity of this claim was later dismissed as ‘fake news’

The outdoor session was bright and breezy (admittedly a chilly variant of breezy) affair

The teams were

White - Steve Smith, Haggis, Midweek Michelle, Mike Thomo, Ian Harding, Steve Carine and Jeff Betty

Blue - Helen, Graham, Deano, Chris 10P, Chris 4G, Tom Stretch

The sides were numerically challenged by the non-appearance of Jason, who had been pencilled-in to rampage across the wild expanses in his usual manner His unavailability meant Jeff Betty played half the session for White before switching sides after the break With the extra player advantage White were able to stretch their opponents and dominate possession Blue played in a cavalier style with little regard for defensive responsibility Steve Smith grabbed the game’s first score after some slick passing Deano levelled slightly against the grain 1-1 and a very fine game now in full effect Blue made their superiority pay off with Steve Smith’s second and goals by Mike Thomo and Steve Carine 4-1 and Blue cruising White closed the deficit with Chris 10P finding a gap with a speculative back heel strike 4-2 and half time

Betty’s switch to Blue should have switched Blue’s fortunes with the extra player but Ian Harding found space to fire White 5-2 ahead Blue did increase the pressure with a goal by Chris 4G 5-3 White still ahead Steve Smith, might have hit a second half hat trick but had one effort ruled out for ‘not walking’ He did claim 2 more (his third and fourth of the session) Chris 10P matched that with his second and third of the night The game ended with Blue bearing down on goal El Presidente signalling the end with a hearty blast of his Acme Thunderer Final score White 7 - 5 victors Blue’s failure to adequately defend their ultimate undoing

Using the Innard’s example there were no photographic evidence to support the team’s composition We really must do better next week

The new year, our 11th, is officially underway with plenty of encouraging signs of progress We encourage more members to push the envelope and come along to strut their stuff

Yah Mo B There* - James Ingram and Michael McDonald